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How to deep strike!

Started by Chicop76, August 10, 2012, 01:37:46 AM

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Chicop76

I figured I will tackle this topic since people are surpprised I rarely mishap. Now a days I think I may mishap like twice at the most, and most games I usally mishap once or not at all. This subject is covering armies that requires skill to deep strike. Nids and Marines cheat where they can minimize distance and prevent deep striking into units. Even with the minimize distance I still see said armies mishap. i for one really won't cover such units due to you really have to be not bright to even pull that off. I will cover Daemons since they require some skill to be placed right. Although Daemons can take icons, which I do not use, they can't use them when they deep strike the first half of their army in.

I will cover some points in the next paragraph, before I do I wanted to mention that you can now pre measure now. Premeasuring is your friend and is really helpful in deep striking in on the board.

1. The first rule in deep striking is to keep 12" away from the board edge. I suggest a minimum of 8" since 7" is an average roll with two dice. Most objectives tend to be at least 12" away which makes deep striking on an objective rather save. If you are placing an objective down and can bypass that 12" do so against a deep striking army. If the objective is on the edge the unit will either deep strike a save distance and take 2 turns to get to the objective, or take a risk deep striking off the table to land on the objective. With Daemons I place my objective 12" away so I can safely try to land on top of it. I want to stress the table edge is a killer, premeasuring now helps keep you from going over the edge so to speak.

2. I call this the second most important rule in deep striking. I have to admit i do not always follow this rule, but in a way I am. If you are deep striking you want your most important model first. The reason being is for good placement. With an army like Daemons you run into the problem of running out of safe deep striking room. I deep strike my flamers first, and my fate weaver second. The reason why I do so is for the best flame coverage with minimal mishap. I suggest doing Fateweaver first 12" away from anything that can cause mishap and go from there. I don't personally do fateweaver first due to the fact my flamers might land on top of fateweaver. That being the case I have Fateweaver out farther than I like him, but if I do it the other way around I have a better chance for the re ro roll. Anyway you do not want to lose a almost 350 point model to a mishap, while a 115pt unit is more expendable. Which ever unit is MVP in your deep striking element you want it to go first for good placement.

3. Know your models role before you randomly deepstrike in. Again I will mention Daemons cause it is really important to know how to place your guys. With flamers for example you want to deep strike as close as possible to the enemy. Units that rapid fire and shoot 18" out you want to be within 8"' and the same goes for a strong durable melee unit. Screamers you want about 12" away so they can turbo over units for extra attacks. Units like Seekers you want about 18" away, the reason being is you far enough to maybe not get rapid fired, yet close enough to assault next turn, again premeasur is your friend and using run isn't a bad ideal. Going back to 2 you want to place your models accordingly. If for example you deepstriking 10 units you will find when you get to 6 you will have some problems. Also keep in mind with Daemons you will still be deepstriking units up until the 4th turn and have to make room for the rest of your army.

4. This rule is really important and the main reason why I do not mishap often. I follow this rule when any type of imappsible terrain, friendly or unfriendly models become an issue. Always deepstike at a 45 degree angle. By doing so you have an 1/8 chance on top of a 1/3 chance of mishaping into said unit.

example a:

                                                           ooo
                                                            oo
                                xxxxxxxxxxxxx
                                     xxxxxxxxx
                          xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

If the o's are flamers and the x's is the target unit this is the angle you want to deepstrike in. If you go strait down you will not mishap and if you go left you will not mishap and by doing so you will still be able to flame said unit if you go in those two directions. This angle only allows for a south west direction being a chance for a mishap. I tend to be 3" away with my inital deep striking model and make my circle in a way I do not mishap and to get optimal flame coverage. This rule applies to any distance. You want to keep at a 45 degree angle.

exampl b:

                                  oo
                                ooo
                   xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
                          xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
                       xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

In this example this is a bad deep strike. If you go SW,S, and SE you have a good chance of mishapinp. Now you took your 1/8 chance and turned it into a 3/8 chance of mishap.

Remember to try to keep at a 45 if you have to place near your unit and etc. IMO it is harder to hit the 45 degree angles than slightly up down and left and right.

Also keep in mind if you are deep striking and can not shoot you are a sitting duck. Tzeentch daemons for example can lay down a decent amount of fire power when they come in. Which means if certain enemy units was within rapid fire range they are not now. If you are going heavy melee you will have some problems since they can lay into you with shooting and possibly assault you next turn. My point is if you know you can't kil that thunderwolf unit do not deepstriket  near it. Grant it that would be hard to do, so deepstriking a durable unit in front of your heavy melee unit would not be a bad ideal. A good examble is to deep strike a legion of the damn unit in front of harliquins to stop them from assualting a regular marine unit.